So this week we see the start of the administration process for the Arcadia group empire.. It really reminded me of 2008 when I was working within Woolworths head office. Deloitte came in and well then the rest is history.
I really feel for all the employees in the system.. it’s a sicknesses of the system that we are all in, any suppliers and direct factories will bear the brunt of its ailments.
Which is why I’d like to start to look at brands as an eco-system - what is done in the eco-system has an impact on everything. Just as if you poison the soil or eradicate a species in the natural world that has an impact on the surrounding ecosystem.
To create business without ego.
In the ego-system the ceo is separated from the rest - and in turn hierarchy & standard structure determines that there is less innovation coming to the forefront - the top down approach is inevitable .. change and indeed the ability to react to change is stunted. The very system becomes heavy & stuck.
In the eco-system we feed each other - nurture and thrive .. what that looks like is up to the collective and not the few. Smaller agile teams, self organising to build into the wider collective.
Imagine as a ceo being the inspiration & the facilitator rather than the ultimate decision maker - how much time would that free up for you, not to mention less stress & much happier teams.
Arcadia falling is an important milestone on the journey & some things indeed need to fall in order to have a new story grow from it - just as when a large tree dies from it comes mulch for the soil and the seeds of a new thriving forests that may well be very different from the former mighty oak, start to blossom.
Death is just the beginning.
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